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previous two decades. Most of it had been spent on the construction of sewage treatment
infrastructure.
At best, it had been a vast reenactment of the coin collectors' work, with the government
pouring billions of rupees into the rivers, and builders of infrastructure standing by to
dredge the money out.
The problem with this approach was that building sewage treatment plants was simply
not enough. “We are spending huge amounts of money from the World Bank, from all other
sources, taking loans,” Trivedi said. But little of the wastewater infrastructure created with
that money actually worked. “You have taken the loan and created it, and they don't have
the money to operate it! It can work only when there is continuous flow of funds.” He
shook his head, smiling. “When you create a sewage treatment plant, you first figure out
how it will work for twenty or thirty years. But we never looked at that. We just implemen-
ted the YAP.”
“Which has no effect,” I hazarded.
“Which has no effect,” he confirmed.
Because Delhi doesn't charge for sewage treatment, there is no flow of funds to sustain
the treatment plants. Not that most people in Delhi could afford sewage treatment fees
in the first place. A further problem is the helter-skelter pattern of development in the
city. A large proportion of Delhi's neighborhoods have sprouted up unplanned, without
any thought for how services like water and sewage treatment could be delivered, even if
they were affordable. Sewage treatment plants built with YAP funds were therefore placed
where there was room for the plants, not where there was sewage to be treated.
Trivedi thought any viable solution had to address the depletion of groundwater in the
river basin. That meant promoting rainwater harvesting, a practice with deep traditional
roots in India. Village ponds and earthen bunds can allow monsoonal water to stand long
enough for it to seep into the ground and recharge the depleted water table. “Thereby, we
can reduce the depletion of the groundwater table in the entire catchment area,” Trivedi
said. “And if the water table comes up, all the rivers will start flowing again.”
Having told me how to heal every river in India, he put his hands on the table. There
was, I knew, another shoe to drop.
The rainwater harvesting, I asked. Was that something that would happen at the local
level?
“Yes,” he said. “But government always spends money on big, big projects. When
people suggest something small, like five thousand dollars for a small reservoir or village
pond…” He trailed off, still smiling. “They say, 'No, no, no. This is very small.'”
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